ON Stage is the cultural magazine of the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA), Mumbai, and features authoritative stories on the performing arts.
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India’s first and only professional orchestra, founded at the NCPA, has turned 15. From performing challenging repertoire and playing with the legends of classical music to touring internationally with great success, the SOI has gone from strength to strength. We bring you memories, and messages from the pillars of
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What is a theatre without its artistes and audience? The last 18 months revealed a sombre facet of a scenario that seemed inconceivable in the forever busy corridors of the NCPA. But with theatres been given the green light to reopen, the buzz has returned. Chairman Mr. Khushroo N. Suntook
Music Education
ON Stage brings you excerpts from the NCPA Quarterly Journal, an unsurpassed literary archive that ran from 1972 to 1988 and featured authoritative and wide-ranging articles. In this multi-part article, scholar, curator and Indophile Robert J. Del Bonta explores operas that mention, are set in or are about India, delving
Music Education
An exponent of the classical tradition and champion of contemporary music, the Hungarian-born musician’s oeuvre bears the stamp of his individuality and formidable technique. By Cavas Bilimoria By the mid 1920s it seemed as if the zenith in bewitching sound, charm, elegance, suavity and virtuosity spearheaded by Ysaye and
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The inseparability of art and human existence, the civilising impact of the visual and performing arts, and the humaneness that they nurture were themes Dr. Farokh E. Udwadia addressed with great eloquence and erudition, sprinkling them with poetic interludes, at the 2021 edition of the Jamshed Bhabha Memorial Lectures. We
Music Education
In the final part of the series on the NCPA’s collection of musical instruments, we take you through the ins and outs of a prized pipe organ gifted to the NCPA circa 1988. We also bring to the fore top-notch pianos that light up many a recital across our
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From pursuing higher education in prestigious conservatoires to winning laurels in international competitions, the students of the SOI Music Academy are going places Soli Cyrus Nallaseth was among the first students of the SOI Music Academy, where he studied piano under Aida Bisengalieva. A student of the instrument since the
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Ahead of the second Jamshed Bhabha Memorial Lecture, Chairman Mr. Khushroo N. Suntook reflects on the qualities that make Dr. Bhabha and Dr. Farokh E. Udwadia, the distinguished speaker for this year, kindred souls. August 21 marks a date when our beloved founder Dr. Jamshed Bhabha would have been 107
Music Education
The allure of music is so strong that it won’t be very long before we gather to enjoy a recital again. Until then, we learn about the importance of sourcing and caring for fine musical instruments, as we unearth fascinating stories behind the harps, violins, violas, cellos and double
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One of the finest pianists of India, the story of Rumi Nanavati’s life in music deserves an audience of its own. By Snigdha Hasan In a world where renown is quantifiable in terms of Google results and number of followers, an internet search for Rumi Nanavati yields but two
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With inputs from Gian Ganzarolli, Consultant to the NCPA for opera, who gives us a sweeping overview of what has been happening across venues in Europe during the pandemic, we bring you the latest from centres of culture the world over that are thinking outside the box to make live
Know Your Composer
A composition inspired by nature and aspiring to the impulse of liberation that a bird in flight represents, Ralph Vaughan Williams’s The Lark Ascending is also a gentle love letter to the rolling English countryside. By Jehangir Batiwala Never underestimate nature. The truth of this statement normally becomes apparent